Former First Lady Susan Allen to tour the VCU Medical Center Advanced Breast Imaging Center

By Michael Ford
University News Services

RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 19, 2004) – Former Virginia first lady Susan Allen will tour the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center Breast Imaging Center at 11 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 20, to help raise awareness about breast cancer prevention.

The director of the Breast Imaging Center, Ellen Shaw de Paredes, M.D., will join Allen at the Nelson Clinic location, 101 N. 11th St.

The VCU Medical Center recently became the only health system in the United States to acquire recently developed, state-of-the art digital mammography equipment that is able to produce extremely high-resolution images. The equipment gives VCU Medical Center radiologists clear, full-field, digital images that may be manipulated, magnified and inverted.

"It is an honor for me to be able to support the life-saving work of the VCU Breast Imaging Center and Dr. Paredes," said Allen. "The essential resources and training provided by the VCU Breast Imaging Center are so vitally important for the women of Virginia and America as we work to move even closer to understanding, surviving and one day, hopefully, preventing cancer."

The equipment being installed at the Nelson clinic location already is in use at the VCU Medical Center's Breast Imaging Center at Stony Point. The VCU Breast Imaging Center provides a full range of screening and diagnostic services, including mammography and ultrasound, as well as non-surgical interventions such as biopsies.

Mammograms are an important tool in the early diagnosis of breast cancer, detecting changes in breast tissue up to two years before a patient or physician can feel them. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.